Quantum 2025
International Year of Quantum Science and Technology
The United Nations has proclaimed 2025 the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology (IYQ). At the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics (Albert Einstein Institute) and the Institute for Gravitational Physics at Leibniz University Hannover, quantum mechanics has always played a major role in both experiment and theory. At the institutes, scientists work on the entire spectrum of gravitational physics – from the quantum to the cosmos. This includes the development and operation of current and future high-precision gravitational-wave detectors, whose measurement accuracy is limited by quantum physics, pioneering quantum optical laboratory experiments, and research into quantum gravity, a quantum mechanical description of the theory of relativity.
Our current quantum research
10 m prototype
The sensitivity of current and future gravitational-wave detectors is limited by quantum mechanical noise. The AEI 10 meter prototype will serve as a testbed for new technology and investigate possible methods for overcoming the standard quantum limit.
Einstein Telescope
The AEI has long been a leading institution in gravitational-wave research and is a co-initiator of the Einstein Telescope. The research includes among other things quantum-limited interferometric measurements and the development of squeezed-light sorces.
GEO600
GEO600 is a gravitational-wave detector and a technology forge for the international research community. The technologies developed and tested in the GEO project enable today's detectors to observe at the quantum level.
Lasers and squeezed light
The “Lasers and squeezed light” group focuses its research on stabilized high-power lasers and non-classical light sources for next generation gravitational-wave detectors, such as the Einstein Telescope and Cosmic Explorer.
Exceptional Quantum Gravity
This ERC-funded research group seeks to develop a new symmetry based approach to the problem of reconciling quantum mechanics and Einstein’s general relativity into a consistent theory of quantum gravity unifying gravity, space-time and matter.
Quantum Gravity and Unified Theories
This department attends to the development of a theory that unifies quantum theory and general relativity – in the framework of superstring theory as well as canonical quantization.
Fundamentale Physik
Researchers in the “Precision Interferometry and Fundamental Interactions” department study among other things predictions of quantum electrodynamics.
Quantum Control
This research group at the Institute for Gravitational Physics at Leibniz University Hannover works mainly on the continuous measurement and stabilisation of (mostly quantum optical) systems exhibiting noise at or below the quantum level.
QuantumFrontiers
QuantumFrontiers merges quantum metrology and nanometrology in order reach unprecedented sensitivity and precision, and to push the bounds of knowledge at the largest and smallest dimensions: from gravitational-wave astronomy to the manipulation of light and matter on the quantum level.
Quantum Valley Lower Saxony
Quantum Valley Lower Saxony (QVLS) brings together Lower Saxony’s quantum expertise in science, industry and politics. Together, this network stands for research and transfer of quantum technologies in the global race.
Upcoming events
Press releases with quantum context
Related articles from Max Planck Society Yearbooks
A complex systems perspective on fundamental interactions (2021)
Quantum entanglement plays a role in understanding gravity.
Quantum gravity and unification (2016)
How reflections on symmetry can help to unify general relativity and the standard model of particle physics.
10+16 dimensional superspace as a building kit for scattering amplitudes (2014)
Which symmetries and mathematical structures are hidden in the scattering amplitudes of quantum field theories?
Inflation and cycles in the multiverse (2011)
What does the string theory, as the best current approach to a unified theory, have to say about our Universe?
Innovation quantum metrology (2010)
At the German-British observatory GEO600, squeezed light will be used for the first time worldwide to improve the measurement sensitivity of a gravitational-wave detector.
Geometry of the expanding Universe (2009)
Definitive conclusions from incomplete information: discussing generalized spacetime geometries from quantum gravity with modern mathematics.
How many dimensions has our world? (2007)
String theory is a central player in our search for a consistent theory of quantum gravity.
New symmetry structures of string theory (2005)
A novel definition of a unified theory of all four known fundamental forces using new results concerning the symmetry structures of string theory.
Innovative Optics for Gravitational Wave Astronomy (2004)
With high-power lasers, advanced technology and novel concepts twoards gravitational-wave astronomy.
Integrable Super-Spinchains and Rotating Superstrings (2003)
A novel approach to the study of four-dimensional quantum field theories using long-range, integrable super-spinchains.